Flexible shafts have long been known as machine elements for transmitting torques when drive input and drive output are not aligned, i.e. are mutually offset, or when mobile machines or devices are to be driven with low power. In these cases, flexible shafts can transmit the rotational movement highly uniformly, are not susceptible to environmental conditions and are far cheaper than drive chains containing rigid shafts, bevel gears, flexible couplings etc. In addition, particular advantages of flexible shafts are that tight bend radii are possible, and that shafts can be laid using a plurality of bends and can be fitted where space is limited. Furthermore, flexible shafts can also compensate for changes in length of different individual parts as a result of thermal expansion. If flexible shafts are designed as hollow shafts, electrical or optical signals can also be transmitted inside the shaft.
Numerous configurations of flexible shafts are known. Normally they are composed of a plurality of layers of multiple windings of thin metal wires usually made of steel, in particular spring steel, which layers are wound one above the other in an alternately right-handed and left-handed helical pattern. High quality flexible shafts are obtained by heat treatments carried out after winding. It is likewise possible in flexible shafts that at least individual layers are twisted (stranded) or braided so that it is possible to transmit higher compressive and tensile forces or in order to form a wire rope.
The advantageous properties of flexible shafts mean that they are also used in electronic equipment or antennas for drive, adjustment or control purposes. A specific application is to use flexible shafts to move phase shifters in antennas, in particular in mobile communications antennas, in order to adjust specifically the radiator provided in the antenna as regards the down-tilt angle thereof in the elevation direction or the angle of radiation thereof in the azimuth direction. The phase shifter is here connected mechanically via the flexible shaft to an associated actuator (electric motor), which produces the required rotational movement of the flexible shaft and thereby the movement of the phase shifter.
When using flexible shafts in electronic equipment and antennas, it is disadvantageous that the metal wires or individual strands of the flexible shaft can touch at undefined points during the transmission of torque or power, or even in the idle state as a result of vibrations, jolts and temperature fluctuations, causing unwanted intermodulation products to occur in the electronic equipment or antennas. Such intermodulation or interference products reduce the transmission capability for antennas.
The object of the invention is therefore to create a flexible shaft which can be used to avoid unwanted intermodulation products.
The metal wires of the flexible shaft are each enclosed by an electrically insulating insulation layer, which prevents metal-to-metal contact between adjacent metal wires.
The invention prevents undefined metal contacts, i.e. electrically conducting contacts, between the individual wires of the flexible shaft, and hence unwanted intermodulations in electronic equipment or antennas. Reductions in the transmission capability for antennas can be avoided. In addition, the insulation layer provides excellent corrosion protection for the metal wires, thereby enabling use in corrosive atmospheres. It is also possible to lay the flexible shaft in a metal pipe or using metallic supports without the possibility of galvanic corrosion occurring or electrical contact being made with the metal pipe or the supports. Furthermore, the insulation layer improves the anti-friction properties of the individual wires between one another and of the flexible shaft in a sheath, if such a sheath is provided.
The terms “metal wire” or “wire” used in the present invention include all types of thin wires or strands that are suitable for producing flexible shafts.
Preferably, all the metal wires in the flexible shaft are each enclosed by such an insulation layer. It is also possible, however, to use a suitable mix of insulated and uninsulated wires, i.e. to provide only some of the wires with a suitable insulation layer, if this can reduce the undefined electrical contacts between the wires to the desired degree. In addition, it is also possible when there are a plurality of layers lying one above the other to provide an entire internal layer with an additional insulating jacket that electrically insulates an internal layer from an adjacent outer layer.
The insulation layer is advantageously a uniformly thin, firmly adhering, abrasion-resistant, non-porous and expandable electrically insulating layer.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the insulation layer has a thickness of less than or equal to 60 μm, in particular a thickness of less than 10 μm. Insulation layers of such thin dimensions mean that the diameter of the flexible shaft is increased only slightly compared with conventional configurations without insulation.
According to an advantageous embodiment, the insulation layer is made of a plastics sheathing or a paint coating. High temperature paints or PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) are particularly advantageous for this purpose because these materials allow heat treatment of the torque-transmission and/or power-transmission apparatus after winding.
It is particularly advantageous if the insulation layer has a temperature stability of at least 240° C., because particularly effective heat treatments of the ready-wound flexible shaft are possible at temperatures above 240° C.